KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is happy to discuss her views on social issues like abortion and homosexuality, but reluctant to list what she usually reads to keep up on world events.
 
That’s the takeout from a series of interviews the Alaska governor did with CBS anchor Katie Couric, which aired on Tuesday night.
 
Palin, whose opposition to abortion rights has ignited support among social conservatives, some of whom were wary of presidential nominee John McCain, discussed whether rape or incest victims should be allowed to have an abortion.
 
“Personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in,” she said. “If you’re asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not.”
 
When asked about her views on homosexuality, Palin talked about a close friend who is gay.
 
“One of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years happens to be gay, and I love her dearly,” Palin said. “She is one of my best friends, who happens to have made a choice that isn’t a choice I would have made. But I am not going to judge people.”
 
Palin has faced criticism for lacking experience in foreign policy. Before becoming governor some two years ago she was the mayor of a small town.
 
Couric asked Palin what newspapers and magazines she read regularly before becoming McCain’s running mate “to stay informed and to understand the world.”
 
Here is her response, according to a transcript provided by CBS:
 
Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media. 
 
Couric: What, specifically?
 
Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years. 
 
Couric: Can you name a few? 
 
Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

Photo credit: REUTERS/Stephen Mally

PHOENIX  - U.S. lawmakers have yet to back a plan to try and stem the global financial crisis. But the vigorous round of finger-pointing over who is to blame for it continued on the campaign trail on Tuesday as John McCain’s camp singled out Democratic rival Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton in a new ad.

The 60-second spot argued that, while the veteran Arizona senator sought to rein in excesses by troubled mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - which were rescued by the government earlier this month – Obama, an Illinois senator, did nothing.

“John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie,” a voiceover says. It then quotes The Washington Post saying McCain “pushed for stronger regulation … while Mr. Obama was notably silent.”

“But Democrats blocked the reforms. Loans soared. Then, the bubble burst. And taxpayers are on the hook for billions.”

The salvo laying blame and charging inaction over the crisis comes a day after the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a bailout plan backed by President George W. Bush that sought to buy up $700 billion in troubled bank assets.

The surprise 228-205 House defeat sent markets tumbling around the world and unleashed a sharp blame game in Washington.

House Republicans, a majority of whom voted against the bill, blamed the failure on a “partisan” speech given before the vote by House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in which she chided Republicans for what she said was their “budgetary recklessness” and an “anything goes mentality” that led to the crisis.

The ad aired by the McCain camp also seeks to heap blame for the financial debacle on former President Clinton.

“Bill Clinton knows who is responsible,” the voiceover intoned, before cutting to a clip of the former president saying: “I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

It concluded: ‘You’re right, Mr. President. It didn’t have to happen.”

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Bourg, Sept 26, 2008, USA)

Politicians are busy blaming betting in financial markets for the recent market turmoil, with Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of euro zone finance ministers, urging investors to stop playing a "casino game" with their shares this week.

But dare-devil operators in financial markets have shown no sign of halting their innovation in financial instruments, which are enabling investors to bet on everything from Academy Award winners to space travelling.

One of the most traded contracts on trading platform Intrade is the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election, due in just over a month.

The Barack Obama contract, based on the U.S. dollar, rose 1.5 points to 62.5, with 5,857 contracts traded on Tuesday. The level is just below a record high set in mid-July.

The John McCain contract fell half a point to 37.6, having hit an all-time high only a few weeks ago.

Die-hard Hillary Clinton fans are still betting on the New York senator to win the presidential election, with the Clinton contract rising 0.4 point to 3.2.

Barack Obama contract:

DALLAS - Republican presidential contender John McCain still retains strong support from white evangelical Protestants, but the 72-year-old Arizona senator’s appeal fades with younger voters from this flock.

That is the findings of a survey that was just done for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.

It found that McCain has the support of 71 percent of white evangelical Christians versus 23 percent for his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

But the numbers narrow somewhat for evangelicals under the age of 30, to 62 percent for McCain to 30 percent for Obama.

McCain has solidified his support with this important component of the Republican base with his choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin – a staunch conservative Christian and mother of six — as his running mate.

But the survey found that while older white evangelical women were among Palin’s most ardent supporters, women below 30 from that group were far less enthusiastic about her. 

 It found Palin’s favorability rating among white evangelical women below 30 was only 46 percent; compared with 65 percent for white evangelical women over 30. 

President George W. Bush took close to 80 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2004, underscoring its importance to the Republican Party.

Democratic strategists have hoped to make at least some headway into this monolith. Overall, the 2004 election was a close one so even a few votes poached from the other side, especially in closely contested states such as Colorado or Ohio, could make a huge difference to the outcome of the Nov. 4 White House race.

The survey involved 1400 adults, 18 years or older, including an oversample of 400 evangelical Christians ages 18-29. It was conducted September 4-21, 2008.

The margin of error for white evangelical Christians surveyed is 4.1 percent and rises to 5.5 percent for those between the ages of 18 and 29.

(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jim Bourg, Sept 26, 2008, USA. Combination images of Senators McCain and Obama speaking at first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi)

Politics and comedy collided once again on “Saturday Night Live” with Tina Fey reviving her dead-on Sarah Palin impression while Fred Armisen’s Barack Obama debated Darrell Hammond’s rendition of John McCain.

The NBC comedy show opened with Fey, wearing a pink jacket and turned out in Palin-esque eyeglasses and her trademark up-do, being interviewed by a a faux Katie Couric. Fey, who first portrayed the Republican vice presidential nominee on “SNL’s” season premiere, offered up titteringly silly answers to questions on foreign policy and her trip to New York City. She was especially disturbed during her visit to the United Nations by the high presence of foreigners there — jobs that she vowed would go to Americans in a McCain administration.

The recreation of Friday’s McCain-Obama debate featured a running gag in which McCain repeatedly proposed that he and Obama suspend their campaigns to either “hold a series of pie-eating contests,” “town hall meetings where you and I appear nude of semi-nude” or for the candidates to be air-dropped so they can search for Osama bin Laden.

The satire focused on McCain, including his contention that “I’ve always been disloyal to this president,” while his record within his own party showing that “the fact is, you simply cannot count on John McCain.”

Obama took a few hits as well, saying that if traditional diplomacy failed in negotiations with, say, North Korea, “playing the race card” would be his go-to plan.

Finally, on the idea for personal searching for bin Laden, McCain said he “would rather lose my life than win an election,” and when asked by the moderator if he really meant that, concluded, “Truthfully, yes, at this point I really don’t care anymore. I mean it.”

With just over a month left before the election, however, you can bet the “SNL” writers and performers care — a lot — about the comic fodder provided by the campaign.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni (Tina Fey (left), who impersonates Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” show with “SNL” star Amy Poehler at the Governor’s Ball at the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles September 21, 2008.)

WASHINGTON - Republican White House hopeful John McCain, fresh from his first debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama in Mississippi, expressed regret on Saturday that his performance didn’t win over all the pundits in the press.
 
“I was a little disappointed the media called it a tie but I think that means, when they call it a tie, that means we win,” McCain said during a telephone call that was caught by cameras filming him at his campaign headquarters.
 
Both camps claimed victory after the 90-minute debate on Friday.
 
Meanwhile, Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, sought to lower expectations for the next debate in Tennessee on Oct. 7. It will be conducted in a town-hall style with questions from an audience.
 
“We will be a decided underdog in that encounter, and John McCain is the undisputed town hall champion,” Plouffe told reporters on a conference call, noting that McCain — who is fond of the format — had challenged Obama to do joint town hall meetings throughout the summer.
 
“He clearly feels, even more than the foreign policy debate, this is his home turf. So if we can just escape relatively unscathed against the undisputed town hall champion in Tennessee, we’ll be thrilled.”
 
Obama has held regular town halls of his own throughout the 2008 campaign and does not appear to struggle with the format.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain talks on the phone at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on Sept. 27)
 

WASHINGTON - There wasn’t a “You’re no Jack Kennedy” moment at the first presidential debate of 2008. But there were several lines both White House hopefuls kept using throughout the evening as a way of getting in subtle and not-so-subtle digs at each other.
 
By our count, Democratic contender Barack Obama mentioned the unpopular President George W. Bush 10 times over the course of the 97-minute debate, trying to suggest Republican rival John McCain would represent the same as the last eight years.
 
“John mentioned me being wildly liberal. Mostly that’s just me opposing George Bush’s wrong headed policies since I’ve been in Congress,” the Illinois senator said.
 
McCain had his own way of using words to undercut his rival, focusing on Obama’s four years in the U.S. Senate versus his 22 years in the legislative body. 

He said seven different times that Obama just didn’t understand a range of issues, from strategy in Iraq to the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia.
 
“Well, I was interested in Senator Obama’s reaction to the Russian aggression against Georgia.  His first statement was, ‘Both sides ought to show restraint,’” McCain said. “Again, a little bit of naivete there. “He doesn’t understand that Russia committed serious aggression against Georgia.”
 
Obama on nine occasions said that McCain was right on various issues — sometimes in praising him but also sometimes just agreeing with a comment.  He agreed that McCain was correct about the surge of troops in Iraq dramatically cutting down violence, and he agreed that presidents had to be prudent in what they said.

Obama also said McCain was wrong on at least three occasions.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg (McCain and Obama pass each other on stage at debate)

OXFORD, Miss. - It’s the seal that just keeps on giving.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain needled White House rival Barack Obama again on Friday for using a seal earlier in his campaign that mirrored the one used by the U.S. president.

The exchange was prompted by ribbing from Obama over McCain’s refusal to commit to a meeting with the prime minister of Spain if he wins the November 4 election.

“(McCain) even said the other day that he would not meet potentially with the prime minister of Spain, because he — you know, he wasn’t sure whether they were aligned with us. I mean, Spain? Spain is a NATO ally,” Obama said.

McCain, who was in the middle of criticizing Obama for being willing to meet with U.S. foes, reacted sharply.

“I’m not going to set the White House visitors schedule before I’m president of the United States,” he said. “I don’t even have a seal yet.”

The Obama seal, which the Illinois senator used at a campaign event in June, had a picture of a bald eagle on it and an inscribed phrase that read “Vero Possumus,” a Latin expression that roughly translates to the campaign’s slogan, “Yes, we can.”

The seal drew some ridicule for being presumptuous and the campaign never used it again.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

WASHINGTON - Republican White House hopeful John McCain tried to use a bracelet of a fallen U.S. soldier given on the campaign trail to drive home his point that he would not withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq based on an arbitrary timeline.

The mother of a soldier gave him a bracelet and asked him to promise “that you will do everything in your power to make sure my son’s death was not in vain,” McCain said in the first presidential debate, contrasting his views with Democratic rival Barack Obama, who has said he would withdraw forces within 16 months.

Obama shot back that he too had a bracelet from the mother of a soldier who asked that no other mother endure the loss she was experiencing.

“She asked me ‘can you please make sure that another mother is not going through what I’m going through,’” Obama said. “No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they are carrying out the missions of their commander in chief.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg (McCain and Obama gesture during presidential debate)

WASHINGTON - The first presidential debate that almost wasn’t — thanks to tumultuous talks in Congress over the financial rescue package — is now over.

What did you think was the pivotal moment for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama?

Who had the best line? Did they satisfy concerns about the economy even though national security was the primary topic?

Did this first of three presidential debates seal the deal for voters?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

NOTE from the moderator: Thanks to all for the comments, we’ve closed this post now but invite you to continue reading Tales from the Trail for more posts through to the election.  JP